PLO chief negotiator: PA plans to return to terror when negotiations break down

Nabil Shaath, chief PLO negotiator for 1993 Oslo Accords, at a closed meeting:
"We decided to begin liberating our homeland step by step. This is the strategy. It is now impossible for the peace process to stop, for if it does, all the acts of violence will return to Israel. We say: Should Israel continue - no problem. And so we honor the peace treaties and non-violence, so long as the agreements are fulfilled step by step. [But] if and when Israel says "enough," namely - "we won't discuss Jerusalem, we won't return refugees, we won't dismantle settlements, we won't withdraw to the borders," in that case it is saying that we will return to violence. But this time, it will be with 30,000 armed Palestinian soldiers and in a land with elements of freedom. I'm the first one to call for it. If we get to a deadlock we shall return to the fighting and struggle, as we have fought for 40 years or more."